AZ Nancy Guthrie, 84, (mother of TODAY Show host Savannah Guthrie) missing - last seen in the Catalina foothills area on Jan 31, 2026

[swanniee11]

FYI- appears to be unrelated Search efforts ongoing for missing Marana man
James Kelly hiker 61yr went missing recently, although I don't see any connection I just wanted to bring awareness to this since Pima county police are assisting in this as well that we don't confuse info/pictures etc. IMO

 

[birdbox]

Do we know of any cases where someone was returned alive after a ransom was paid? Im struggling to think of any.

I cannot think of any. The last time I recall a high-profile case thst even mentioned the word ransom was JonBennet. The last time I recall hearing of a kidnapper and a purported "white van" in the area was Laci Peterson. And we know how those turned out. Not many of these "weird" cases have happy endings.

 

[jepop]

SO -- I've waited before making any comment because I felt we were all rushing to judgement. It's a human reaction to pin the crime on one of the nearest relatives, but it can also backfire. I know Savannah personally, and the last thing I want to do is bring more pain to the Guthrie family. Imagine if your mom was abducted and the public was pointing the finger at you. The sting would be that much greater. All that said, as of this AM, they have collected the elusive white van and as you all know, a second note was sent to KOLD yesterday which has been verified as coming from the same encrypted server. This note apparently made contact with the family, responding to the videos made by Savannah and her siblings. We now have President Trump indicating that officials are close to identifying the abductor or abductors. The horrible thing now, of course, is that we have no proof of life. I PRAY that Nancy is alive after being without her meds for 7 days. It is totally possible. Let's remember that. In fact, billboards are now being put up in AZ and surrounding states asking for the public's help. The hard question now is: WOULD YOU HIT SEND to give millions in crypto to this abductor before the deadline on Monday? If no one is caught this weekend, Savannah will be struggling with the possibility that non-payment could mean death for her mom... MY HEART IS BREAKING FOR HER...

You know SG personally? I'm just reading here but interested in your perspective. You could get yourself verified as an WS verified insider perhaps. Especially if knowing about a white van being ( what ...collected by LE?) is related to that. It is fact and approved source based on WS, so wondering what your source is for that info.

 

[Cassie P]

I am 25, and it’s one of my favorite movies. I watch it every Halloween. But I’m also weird so… lol

Thank you, this is important information. So a young person might be well aware of this movie. And it might be a cult classic, watched over and over again.

So that leaves us with a wide range of possible ages.

 

[SaraSmile]

Well I missed so much overnight there is no way I can catch up on posts. The towing of NG’s car is interesting. Could someone have snuck into the garage when it was opened and tried to steal it but couldn’t and then entered the house for the keys and things went terribly wrong? Or could someone have just waited in the garage after sneaking in and LE now knows or suspects this so they are processing the garage and car more closely for evidence? Did the ransom email contain information about the garage or car showing they had been inside the garage? Did NG have service recently done on the car and the perps had access to her keys including the house? Just some thoughts.

Yes, Nancy’s car is interesting, and they may have just found out about front end damage on Nancy’s car, maybe when preps took her to desert to kill, bury her( sorry), driving, no lights on, full moon, hit rocks. They returned car, not sure how they got into garage without an alert, maybe opened door manually?

 

[missy1974]

You know SG personally? I'm just reading here but interested in your perspective. You could get yourself verified as an WS verified insider perhaps. Especially if knowing about a white van being ( what ...collected by LE?) is related to that. It is fact and approved source based on WS, so wondering what your source is for that info.

Verified already.

 

[SaraSmile]

You know SG personally? I'm just reading here but interested in your perspective. You could get yourself verified as an WS verified insider perhaps. Especially if knowing about a white van being ( what ...collected by LE?) is related to that. It is fact and approved source based on WS, so wondering what your source is for that info.

Did they find the white van, tow it? I hadn’t heard, could be behind. I know they towed Nancy’s car yesterday.

 

[bestill]

It seems things are headed ion another direction so the ransom may just be a distraction not even related

But, let's assume there really are no suspects and all they have is this ransom note. If I were a position financially to pay the 7m without affecting my kids education etc - I believe that - Yes I would pay it.

I dont know SG's financial situation but 7m imo is like a house in the Hamptons. So if paying the 7m gives me peace of mind that I did everything possible - I'd do it.
JMO

Waldo, how do we know it's 7m? I haven't heard an exact number just several million. Thanks!

 

[birdbox]

Who is "FM"?

Family member

 

[turaj]

Unless the SIL had something very important to do. Let's say maybe a mistress on the side he wanted to call? Could be possibly SIL and mistress? IDK--just throwing out theories.

okay this is a wild theory.

 

[vereb]

I assume the poster meant that a mention of the white van was 'collected' by the case as spotting such a vehicle tends to turn up in so many crime stories. Not that the police collected the specific white van spotted by the neighbour.

 

[Aphrodite Jones]

SO -- I've waited before making any comment because I felt we were all rushing to judgement. It's a human reaction to pin the crime on one of the nearest relatives, but it can also backfire. I know Savannah personally, and the last thing I want to do is bring more pain to the Guthrie family. Imagine if your mom was abducted and the public was pointing the finger at you. The sting would be that much greater. All that said, as of this AM, they have collected the elusive white van and as you all know, a second note was sent to KOLD yesterday which has been verified as coming from the same encrypted server. This note apparently made contact with the family, responding to the videos made by Savannah and her siblings. We now have President Trump indicating that officials are close to identifying the abductor or abductors. The horrible thing now, of course, is that we have no proof of life. I PRAY that Nancy is alive after being without her meds for 7 days. It is totally possible. Let's remember that. In fact, billboards are now being put up in AZ and surrounding states asking for the public's help. The hard question now is: WOULD YOU HIT SEND to give millions in crypto to this abductor before the deadline on Monday? If no one is caught this weekend, Savannah will be struggling with the possibility that non-payment could mean death for her mom... MY HEART IS BREAKING FOR HER...

 

[Sadi]

She is a verified poster, she doesn't need to add links iirc.

Why not provide the full details and link? To say something, but not back it up with verification is pointless IMO.

 

[priyaya]

"If it were a family member or somebody who knows the house, they wouldn't have forced entry," Dr Fox explained. "If she knew them, they e."

we dont know if it was forced entry. this was initially reported but they've stopped commenting on in and now arent confirming it.

 

[SaraSmile]

Hope your plane took off and you are not stranded!

Yes it is odd.

Why go to a 35 year old movie to make a point about humanizing NG?
When in fact it didn't actually humanize her at all. A reference to a fictional character in an old movie is distancing NG's humanity in my opinion. Why not talk about NG's role as a grandmother, mother, widow, church goer, volunteer or other info about her life.

But of course the best way to humanize someone is to talk to them directly. A kidnap victim is just an object, a money making tool. Turn them into a real person by talking to them directly. So the advice to the kidnapper to go talk to NG is good. And assumes NG can make the case herself.

But still begs the question why use an old movie to do this? Why not just tell the kidnapper to talk to NG, get to know her, etc.

Why introduce the idea of a serial killer to a kidnapper holding your mother? This goes against psychological crisis management. If you have an aggressive person threatening to harm others, you don't start talking about other killers who are famous and made a name for themselves by killing people.

Yes perhaps the kidnapper instructed SG to say this as a coded message. Perhaps it verifies that SG read the ransom note they sent. Or indicates that SG is agreeing to certain terms without publicly disclosing the specifics.

Or perhaps there was something about the crime scene and note that made the FBI profilers think it was a good idea to go in this direction. A criminal leaves their personality fingerprint on the crime scene. The crime is not a personality aberration but a reflection of their daily personality. It is a picture of who they are.

So perhaps there was something in the RN and crime scene that caught the profiler's eye.

IDK. Again just speculating of course.

I assume the poster meant that a mention of the white van was 'collected' by the case as spotting such a vehicle tends to turn up in so many crime stories. Not that the police collected the specific white van spotted by the neighbour.

Thanks

 

[Sarahlou]

Why not provide the full details and link? To say something, but not back it up with verification is pointless IMO.

Because that might be inside information she heard that hasn't made it to the news yet.

 

[K9Enzo]

SO -- I've waited before making any comment because I felt we were all rushing to judgement. It's a human reaction to pin the crime on one of the nearest relatives, but it can also backfire. I know Savannah personally, and the last thing I want to do is bring more pain to the Guthrie family. Imagine if your mom was abducted and the public was pointing the finger at you. The sting would be that much greater. All that said, as of this AM, they have collected the elusive white van and as you all know, a second note was sent to KOLD yesterday which has been verified as coming from the same encrypted server. This note apparently made contact with the family, responding to the videos made by Savannah and her siblings. We now have President Trump indicating that officials are close to identifying the abductor or abductors. The horrible thing now, of course, is that we have no proof of life. I PRAY that Nancy is alive after being without her meds for 7 days. It is totally possible. Let's remember that. In fact, billboards are now being put up in AZ and surrounding states asking for the public's help. The hard question now is: WOULD YOU HIT SEND to give millions in crypto to this abductor before the deadline on Monday? If no one is caught this weekend, Savannah will be struggling with the possibility that non-payment could mean death for her mom... MY HEART IS BREAKING FOR HER...

Good question. My thoughts at this very moment, based only on what we know from the outside, I would pay it.

However, deep down I wouldn’t believe I was getting my mom back alive.

I would also feel like there wasn’t anything substantial for me to confirm they really had her without verified proof of life. But, I could not live with the “what if “ I suppose. I would also have to live with the fact, not having her returned alive, that I made a major donation to a crime network. IMO

 

[thefragile7393]

You know SG personally? I'm just reading here but interested in your perspective. You could get yourself verified as an WS verified insider perhaps. Especially if knowing about a white van being ( what ...collected by LE?) is related to that. It is fact and approved source based on WS, so wondering what your source is for that info.

She is verified if you look at her picture. She's also a well known crime reporter with her own show True Crime with Aphrodite Jones

 

[thefragile7393]

Why not provide the full details and link? To say something, but not back it up with verification is pointless IMO.

the thing is, she may not be able to reveal her sources if you know who she is. Verified does not necessarily mean that we don't provide sources but certain things can be taken with a little more gospel because of the verification.

 

[Sadi]

we dont know if it was forced entry. this was initially reported but they've stopped commenting on in and now arent confirming it.

True and it could be staged for appearances only.